Revaluation, recreation, Hatteras Island advocacy mentioned in Dare State of the County presentation
- Corinne Saunders
- 6 minutes ago
- 6 min read
Bob Woodard (right), chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, gives the State of the County presentation on Wednesday, March 18, at Captain George’s Seafood Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
By Corinne Saunders
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KILL DEVIL HILLS — Robert L. “Bob” Woodard Sr., chairman of the Dare County Board of Commissioners, covered topics ranging from revaluation to parks and recreation to advocacy for Hatteras Island during the 2026 State of the County presentation at Captain George’s Seafood Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills on Wednesday, March 18.
Woodard said that this is his 14th year as a county commissioner and 12th year as chair. When elected chair, he said he’d promised to give an annual stewardship report, which is what the State of the County is.
He organized his presentation based on months of the year across 2025, starting with the January 2025 revaluation.
“Our board has never raised your taxes,” Woodard said. “We have always done revenue neutral.”
While the state requires a revaluation at least every eight years, Dare County does one every five years, Woodard said.
“Just in five years, it’s up 67%,” he noted. “That’s $27.4 billion of a tax base.”
He also said that Dare County has the second-lowest tax rate among counties in the state.
The revaluation slide is presented during Dare County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bob Woodard’s State of the County on Wednesday, March 18, at Captain George’s Seafood Restaurant in Kill Devil Hills. (Photo by Corinne Saunders)
The Dare A250 Committee launched in January 2025, Woodard noted. The local signature event celebrating the United States’ Semiquincentennial, the A250 Faire, was originally scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 18, at the Wright Brothers National Memorial in Kill Devil Hills.
The event was moved and now takes place in downtown Manteo and at Roanoke Island Festival Park in Manteo, a Feb. 27 county press release announced.
The 35th annual Kelly’s St. Patrick’s Parade in Nags Head on Sunday, March 15, featured an A250 Grand Marshal float and served as the official kickoff to local celebrations, Woodard noted.
Woodard, who walked around the room at Captain George’s as he presented, often interjecting praise of or teasing attendees, wore a white sweater featuring a stylized American flag on its left side and “1776 2026” and “We the people” on the left sleeve.
Nearly 200 people attended this year’s sold-out event in Kill Devil Hills—“The event sells out each year”—and about 40 people attended a second presentation at Cape Hatteras Secondary School in Buxton, according to Dorothy Hester, Dare County public information director.
The Kill Devil Hills event began at 8 a.m. and required advance registration and payment, as it included a breakfast buffet. The Buxton event took place on Saturday, March 21, and was free; no food was involved.
The last time the annual presentation was given in Buxton was in 2020, prior to COVID-19, according to Hester.
Public safety annually represents the largest chunk of the Dare County budget, followed by education. (Graphic courtesy Dare County)
Parks and recreation
Parks and recreation came up several times in Woodard’s presentation. The board of commissioners heard a parks and recreation needs assessment presentation in February 2025, and in September 2025, it learned there would be a $56 million-plus cost for improvements.
At its meeting earlier this month, Dare commissioners approved a referendum on a one-quarter of a cent ($0.0025) sales and use tax to fund improvements to the county’s parks and recreation facilities. This followed a recreation needs assessment completed by McGill and Associates that found approximately $56.9 million is needed to address current and future facility improvements.
The referendum will appear on November general election ballots.
Woodard during the State of the County estimated the proposed tax increase, if approved by voters, would annually cost approximately $14 per individual or about $22 per family. He said most of the tax burden would fall on visitors.
“Seventy percent of that will be paid for by our visitors,” Woodard said. “I just beg you to be open-minded.”
The anticipated $6 million of generated annual revenue from the tax increase would finance the $56 million cost to update facilities, Woodard said.
“There’s nothing more important than investing in our children,” Woodard said.
“I just want to make sure everyone knows, parks and rec isn’t just about kids,” Ivy Ingram, Kill Devil Hills mayor pro tem, noted at the end of the meeting. “It’s just an important thing to remember when we’re considering this tax increase.”
Other highlights
In his presentation, Woodard highlighted that ribbon-cutting ceremonies took place for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Station 8 in Manns Harbor last July and for EMS Station 9 in Kitty Hawk last August. These are part of a series of planned EMS improvements across the county.
In August 2025, the county was recognized for its 34th consecutive year for “excellence in financial reporting,” Woodard said.
Woodard also noted that after “Shrimpgate” took place—an attempt to “shut down trawling on the sound,”—he established the Carolina Coastal Counties Fisheries Coalition in August 2025 to collectively push back on future attempts by state lawmakers to undermine the fishing industry.
“[The] North Carolina legislature is trying to shut down the oldest profession of mankind: Commercial fishing,” Woodard opined.
He predicted that Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger—who just lost his primary race for reelection—would resurrect House Bill 442 in some form or fashion during the upcoming short legislative session.
“In the short session, I guarantee you, he [is] gonna bring 442 back up,” Woodard said. “We gotta rely on the House [of Representatives] to continue to help us defeat this coming up.”
In October 2025, he noted that the county provided $200,000 annually for two years to the then-newly formed housing task force nonprofit as it works to address the local housing crisis.
Hatteras Island
The county has dedicated about $300 million in 12 years to beach nourishment, Woodard said. Projects for Avon and Buxton are scheduled to take place this year.
“Nothing’s more important than our beaches,” Woodard said. “That’s our economic engine.”
He stressed the board’s ongoing push for the Republican-led state legislature to fund the state’s Beach Nourishment Fund, which was established several years ago to support beach nourishment projects but has not received any dedicated funding to date.
Woodard also noted the escalating coastal erosion affecting Hatteras Island in particular, explaining how the county contracts with a debris removal contractor, which collects debris after houses have collapsed.
“The amount of debris is incredible,” Woodard said.
The National Park Service has logged 31 unoccupied house collapses in Rodanthe and Buxton since 2020. Sixteen houses collapsed between Sept. 16 and Oct. 28, 2025.
Meanwhile, cleanup of the Buxton Naval Facility Formerly Used Defense Site (FUDS), which began in earnest in fall 2024, is ongoing.
“Originally it was like a $5 million project,” Woodard said, noting that the present cost is up to $31 million.
He thanked U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis for his advocacy for the project’s continuation.
“Hats off to our senator for making that happen,” Woodard said.
He shared statistics of what cleanup has involved: “Thirteen thousand tons of petroleum-contaminated soil to date, 276,000 gallons of petroleum-contaminated water to date, 3,625,000 pounds of concrete steel and buried infrastructure [and] 250 feet of asbestos materials have been picked up.”
Woodard noted that the board continues to advocate at the state and federal levels both in regard to ongoing house collapses and for improving N.C. Highway 12 access.
“I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been to [Washington] D.C. to lobby our federal legislators, how many times we’ve been to the governor’s office…[and spoken with] state legislators,” he said.
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